Myr

Hmm.  That's a bug. You shouldn't see an option post New Stories or Chapters unless you are an author.  You'll need to go through the Help "Become an Author on Gay Authors" from the Help Menu link on the Help-FAQ page.  Also linked below:
 

It's so fun dealing with software. You fix one issue and it causes another...
 

You need to update your Notification settings.  Link is in the member menu and when you click the notification bell.  or here: https://gayauthors.org/notifications/options/
Sounds like you need to check these 2 sections:

Fixed.

Yes. Use Ignore. It can be found in a couple locations or you can go directly,
https://gayauthors.org/ignore/

To edit your Member Title, do this. 
Go to your profile Click Edit Profile Change first box to title of your choice Scroll to bottom of page and hit Save The reputation level is not editable.

The Story Archive will automatically update the status of a story based on how long it has been since it posted and if the author doesn't visit the site.   Since you haven't been approved yet from the queue, the system considers it over that time requirement.  Once you didn't visit the site during the required time, it updated the status to Temporary Hold.  You can change it when it is out of the queue.

This is now fixed.

Probably related to the inactive account removals still going on.  (accounts with 0 posts and no visits since before 2020 are being removed, especially if they have not subscribed to our newsletter.) We can only remove a few hundred accounts at a time without crashing the server and only in the mornings when the site is less busy.

Just a quirk of the system and how it caches.  nothing to worry about unless you are seeing it everywhere or every time.

The reputation database table became corrupted and the site crashed while trying to repair it automatically.  I shut off the site so the database would stop getting pounded on which allowed me to repair it manually.  It is possible that a small amount of data was lost.  I could force a recount... but doing so would likely significantly drop counts due to the cleaning of the database, which people get touchy about.

Yes there is.  Because Gay Authors is running on HTTPS, that means that ALL content must be displayed that way, or the browser gives you warnings, or blocks you from viewing. something like "This page contains mixed content"
 

Just name a category something like "general" or whatever would fit.  Categories are a new feature of blog that can't be turned off.  So, you have to enter something. (or select something you've entered before once you've created something)

It has not changed much in the last few years.  You must enter all the * marked information on each Step, as it reminds you in the bright orange box...
 
 

Check help section for latest:
 

Check Help section for latest:
 

It does not currently, but I've asked the programmer to look at it.  (it used to use whomever posted as the notification author and that caused all sorts of issues when staff posted something... such as premium or anthologies)
 

It has been removed.
 
Nope.
Nope.  Too many people with second thoughts and no way to undo their actions.

Yes it is a bug.  And yes, it's because of the 'not quite a chapter' nature of the prologue.
I've reported the bug to the programmer.

Ah.  to quote Steve Jobs... "You're holding it wrong!"

I'm guessing you were in landscape mode on a tablet.  It was just wide enough to trigger desktop mode, but not wide enough to display the full image and not narrow enough to turn it off. I reduced the number of pictures so that it should display properly (or not at all) on all devices.

1.  It is working normally.
2. The first link looks like a link to the Gallery page that hosts the image. The second is the direct link to where the image is stored.  (The image is stored on a third party cloud service (Amazon Web Services)). Either link should work. First one gives you the formatted gallery link. 
Second gives you the image directly. (I shrunk it for this post)

Which link you'd like to use depends on your purpose of posting.
3. I think it is a security setting with your iPad.  either VPN, or something about third-party or cross-site image loading. 
Sometimes the issue is on our end where something gets cached incorrectly, but that typically clears in a few hours.  This is pretty rare on a post. I usually see it garbling up a blog header image.
If someone has an iPad, can you weigh in? I think we had a case recently that was similar.

Well, first, don't look at page count.  That varies too wildly depending on how much dialog you use.  Use word count instead.
3000 to 5000 words per chapter is generally good for novel. 
In Word, word count is displayed on the bottom left, right next to page count.

It is, but it requires uploading them into the Gallery first.
Unfortunately though, having looked at the pictures you bring up, we are prevented from allowing images that Google considers porn.  (Yes, I know that Google is loaded with porn, but the Do Only Evil corporation gets to do what it wants while it dictates to everyone else).  Your image samples in "Leaping into the Quarry" would be considered porn by our masters at Google and thus are not allowed.
So, if you can live with that restriction, it's pretty easy to add images to stories. You seem to use a tasteful amount, as that is the other guideline.
Myr

Inserting a picture and adding a link to it by pressing the link button is still an option.

Yes, though custom images like you see on mine and Northie's are a special feature for promoted author groups. (Promising, classic, signature)